New Orleans ordered evacuated ahead of Gustav

New Orleans ordered evacuated ahead of Gustav
Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:12am EDT
By Tim Gaynor and Kathy Finn

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the city's more than 239,000 residents to evacuate on Sunday in the face of powerful Hurricane Gustav, which he called "the mother of all storms."

The evacuation order issued on Saturday was the first in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina devastated the historic Southern city in August 2005.

"This is the mother of all storms," Nagin said of Gustav, a monstrous Category 4 storm...

...The evacuation order, which will not be physically enforced by officials, will start with the city's low-lying West Bank starting at 8 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, followed by the East Bank at noon CDT (1 p.m. EDT)...